What you will learn
You may have heard that "the dollar hit such-and-such today," only to see a completely different dollar figure quoted the same day in another report. This apparent contradiction has a simple cause: in Iran a dollar does not have a single price; several official and unofficial rates exist side by side. In this lesson we separate the three main rates, the free-market rate, the Exchange Center rate, and the preferential rate, say who each rate is for and what it is used for, explain why such a multi-rate system arose at all, and use one hypothetical worked example plus a few dated real figures to see what the gap between these rates means. No prior knowledge is needed; every term is defined where it first appears.
Definitions
Foreign currency (ارز) means the money of other countries, such as the US dollar, the euro, and the UAE dirham. Exchange rate (نرخ ارز) is how many units of the national currency (the toman) you must pay to buy one unit of a foreign currency (for example, one dollar).
Multiple exchange rate system (بازار چندنرخی) is a situation in which more than one official rate exists at the same time for a single currency, with each rate set for a specific group or use. Its opposite is a "single-rate system," in which everyone buys and sells currency at one price.
Exchange bureau (صرافی, sarrafi) is a business licensed by the central bank to buy and sell foreign currency.
Economic rent (رانت, rant) is a profit someone earns not from production or work, but purely from the difference between two prices; in the currency context, when someone obtains foreign currency at a low state-set rate but sells the resulting goods at the free-market price, that price gap ends up in their pocket.
Why do we have several rates at all?
The roots of the multi-rate system lie in a few facts about Iran's economy:
- The government is the largest seller of foreign currency. Most of the country's foreign currency comes from selling oil and gas and flows to the government and the central bank. When one player is this large, instead of letting the price be set freely, it decides at what rate and to whom the currency is given.
- Foreign currency is scarce and under sanctions pressure. Sanctions make access to foreign-currency income and its transfer difficult; when a resource is scarce, the government "rations" it and gives priority to essential goods.
- A policy of protecting essential goods. The government wants the price of medicine, some food staples, and production inputs to stay low for the public, so it provides cheaper currency to import them.
The result of these three factors is several rates instead of one: a rate the market builds freely, a rate the government sets for official imports, and a subsidized rate for the most essential goods.
The three main rates
1) The free-market rate (bazaar-e azad). This is the rate built every day from supply and demand in exchange bureaus and the informal market, and it is usually the highest rate. Anyone who wants to buy or sell currency without special formalities, such as a traveler, a saver, or a small importer, deals with this rate. Because it is set freely, it reacts fastest to news and expectations.
2) The Iran Currency and Gold Exchange Center rate. This is the official, managed rate set under the central bank's supervision in a system called the "Exchange Center" (markaz-e mobadeleh, operating since 1402 in the Iranian calendar, 2023). Exporters offer part of their currency in this system, and registered importers of goods and inputs buy it. This rate is lower than the free market and is used for official imports, part of services, student allowances, and travel quotas.
3) The preferential rate (arz-e tarjihi, or "government currency"). This is the lowest and most heavily subsidized rate, and it goes only to very essential goods, above all medicine. Its famous example was the "4,200-toman dollar," set in 1397 (2018) to import essential goods; later this currency was removed for most goods and, for the remaining items such as medicine, moved to a higher rate (around 28,500 tomans).
A worked example
Let us see what the gap between these rates means in practice: first a fully hypothetical example to grasp the mechanism, then dated real figures.
Suppose an importer is allowed to obtain one hundred thousand dollars at a hypothetical official rate of 150,000 tomans from the state system, while the same dollar costs 180,000 tomans in the free market. They pay 15 billion tomans for the hundred thousand dollars, whereas buying that same currency in the free market would have cost 18 billion tomans. The 3-billion-toman difference is exactly the "rent": a profit earned not from production, but purely from the gap between two rates. If this importer sells their goods at the free-market price yet obtained the currency at the state rate, that 3 billion goes into their pocket, not the consumer's. This example is hypothetical and is given only to illustrate the concept of rent.
Now the real figures: on Monday, 22 Tir 1405 (13 July 2026), based on Sahmino's data, the free-market dollar rate was about 180,000 tomans, while the Exchange Center's remittance-dollar selling rate that same day was announced at about 149,500 tomans. That is, the gap between these two rates, official and free, was close to 30,500 tomans, or roughly 20 percent. These figures are real-time and change constantly; for the current number you can see the dollar price page.
In Iran's market
A few practical points about these rates in practice:
- The SANA system and licensed exchange bureaus. The average buy and sell rates of licensed exchange bureaus are recorded and published in a system called "SANA," so what people hear as "the market rate" is often an average of trades at those very bureaus.
- The agreed rate (tavafoqi). Beyond its remittance rate, the Exchange Center has a segment called "agreed" (tavafoqi) in which the rate is closer to the free market; the goal is to pull more currency supply into the official channel.
- Travel and student currency. The quotas given to travelers and to students abroad at the official rate stem from this same multi-rate system.
- Shrinking the scope of the preferential rate. The general policy of recent years has been to reduce the scope of the preferential rate and bring the rates closer together; the central bank has also stated that it does not intend to return to a broad preferential rate.
Common mistakes
Mistake one, "the official rate is the real dollar rate." The official rate (the Exchange Center) is available only for specific groups and goods; an ordinary consumer usually has to buy currency at the free rate. So a lower official rate does not mean you can obtain currency at that price too.
Mistake two, "being multi-rate means one of the rates is fake." All three rates are real, and each has its use in its own place; their difference is the result of a rationing and subsidy policy, not a fraud.
Mistake three, "cheaper currency is always good for the public." A very low preferential rate can create rent and corruption and raise the incentive to smuggle subsidized goods abroad; for this reason many experts prefer unifying the currency rate. This lesson does not judge whether the policy is right or wrong; it only explains the mechanism.
Summary
One dollar has several prices in Iran because the government is the largest seller of currency, currency is scarce and under sanctions pressure, and the policymaker wants essential goods to stay cheap. The three main rates are the free-market rate (the highest, for everyone), the Exchange Center rate (official and managed, for registered imports and services), and the preferential rate (subsidized, for medicine and the most essential goods). The gap between these rates is exactly where the concept of "rent" is born. In the previous lesson we saw what the coin premium is and how it is calculated; and if you want to know how this same free rate is built moment by moment, review the lesson on how markets discover prices. To see the other basic lessons, visit the Learn page.
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